Why nudity in Modern Art ?

The last night, I went to a modern dance show named In spite of Wishing and Wanting created by Wim Vandekeybus. The artwork wonders the male identity quest in our society, with violence and passion…

My point of view about the artwork

Despite the abstract aspect and the fact that is not really reachable for the regular spectator –I am-, I found it really interesting, and the dancers prestation was amazing. You could see nice somersaults, very interesting disguises and accessories, and even explosions. (YEAH I SWEAR !)And of course, you could see nudity and sex, although that just crosses the artwork.

Nudity in Art

Often, we have the cliche that modern art is often presenting randomly naked people. Well, that dance made me think.
Nudity is rooted in the Art, in all origins, all kinds and all times. In Classic Art, in Renaissance, Ancient sculptures,…
The nude often represents thenature, the innocence, the purity, the freedom, or the naivety….
But, in Modern Art, people find its use abusive. But you only need to wonder seriously the question “Why?” to understand what the author wanted to express by the nudity.

In that show that I saw, that was to support the male bestiality played by the dancer. He just shouted and run on all of fours. The nudity, here, accentuates obviously that bestility. Same when the dancer was playing the masturbation. You can easily think about the bestial sex. The nudity is explicable.

And what about the other modern artworks ?

In each artwork, as I said, you need to wonder “why?” to try to understand the author’s thought. But globally, modern art often use nudity… So why?…I thought about it and I think that if nudity almost became a standard in modern art, it’s first of all to chock, to bump. Indeed, to see an actor wandering with his swinging dick on the scene or beside the spectators, this is at least ankward or disturbing.
The modern art loves upsetting established standards. The rules of conduct are for example often broken by that kind of art, in order to the spectators feel disturbed. In my opinion, this one of the main roles of the nudity: to disturb. And disturbing the spectator, this is making them wondering, thinking.

Then, there is the aspect of modernity. When you see our modern society, you can see how the nudity is rooted in. Just look advertisement. To sell cosmetics, brands present naked models. Sex is also a form of power.
And this is one of the definitions of the Art, modern or not, to reflect the reality.

In our reality, we have sex, violence, hypocrisy, inequity, poverty,… So, in the Art, we have sex, violence, hypocrisy, inequity, poverty,…
This is well, here, one of the roles of the Artist, to examine and to reproduce.